France

The world's most celebrated brandy, double-distilled from the wines of one small French town and aged in oak until it turns to amber silk. Ingredients: grapes — mainly Ugni Blanc — grown in the delimited Cognac region, fermented into a light, acidic wine. Method: 1) Distill the wine twice in copper Charentais pot stills, keeping only the heart of the second distillation. 2) Age in Limousin and Tronçais oak — VS at least two years, VSOP at least four, XO at least ten. 3) Blend eaux-de-vie of many ages and serve neat in a tulip glass, cradled so the hand warms it gently. The experience: dried apricot, fig, vanilla, rancio nuttiness and an endless finish. History: Dutch traders began distilling the region's wines in the 1600s so they would survive the sea voyage; the AOC of 1936 locked the name to this one place on Earth.

The wine of celebration itself — true Champagne comes only from France's Champagne region, and its bubbles are born inside the bottle. Ingredients: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier grapes from chalky northern vineyards. Method: 1) Make a still base wine, blend across grapes, villages and years, and bottle it with yeast and sugar. 2) A second fermentation in the bottle creates the bubbles; the wine then rests on its lees — at least 15 months by law, fine houses age far longer. 3) Disgorge the yeast, dose, cork, and serve well chilled in a tulip or flute. The experience: razor-fine bubbles, citrus, white flowers, brioche and chalk — joy with a mineral spine. History: tradition credits the monk Dom Pérignon with refining its craft in the late 1600s; by the 1800s Champagne was the toast of every court in Europe, and it still opens every celebration that matters.

France's oldest brandy — older than Cognac by a century or more — rustic, soulful and proudly unfashionable, from the rolling hills of Gascony. Ingredients: white grapes — Ugni Blanc, Baco, Folle Blanche, Colombard — from the delimited Armagnac region in southwest France. Method: 1) Distill the wine once, continuously, in the unique Armagnac alembic — a small column still that keeps more of the wine's character than Cognac's double distillation. 2) Age in local black oak; uniquely among great brandies, fine Armagnac is often bottled from a single vintage year. 3) Serve neat after dinner, in a small tulip glass. The experience: deeper and earthier than Cognac — prune, walnut, spice and leather. History: records show distillation in Gascony by the early 1400s; the locals, d'Artagnan's countrymen, have kept it small, family-made and fiercely Gascon ever since.